Professor Douglas W Stephan FRS

Professor of Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto

Doug Stephan is distinguished as the pioneer of the chemistry of "Frustrated Lewis Pairs," including discovery of the remarkable metal-free catalytic hydrogenation of imines, the reduction of carbon dioxide, and the elucidation of the mechanisms of key reactions. He developed the concept that phosphinimides are steric equivalents of cyclopentadienyl groups, and has used the concept to develop cyclopentadienyl-free ethylene polymerization catalysts, which are used commercially on a very large scale. His early independent research on the chemistry of compounds containing both early and late transition elements and on the chemistry of zirconium-phosphorus complexes and catalytic phosphorus-phosphorus bond formation has also had a high impact.